When garlic is used in the preparation of food dishes, garlic cloves are typically removed from a head or bulb of garlic and the skin removed from each garlic clove. These skins can be removed by manually peeling the skins off of the garlic cloves or by partially crushing a garlic clove beneath a flat surface such as a knife blade and then manually peeling away the loosened garlic skin. These techniques are cumbersome and time consuming and are often very messy as the oil released from the garlic clove clings to one's fingers or the knife blade causing the removed skins to adhere to one's fingers or a knife blade thereby requiring constant cleaning.
In order to overcome this tedious and cumbersome task, garlic peeling devices have been developed that purport to simplify the removal of garlic clove skins. Illustrative of these devices are those described in the ensuing descriptions.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,602,279 to Raaij discloses a machine for skinning onions and bulb like plants that uses an insertable, cup-shaped holder spaced above a conveyor means and a blower nozzle for directing air on onions or other bulb like vegetables to remove their skins.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,636,999 to Cordes discloses a garlic bulb appendage remover having multiple sets of opposed rolls with firm resilient surfaces that engage the protruding tops and roots of the gently rotating bulbs and roots.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,481,875 to Toyosato discloses a bulb peeling apparatus that causes incised grooves to be formed on the outer peripheral surface skins of bulbs as the bulbs are rotated. Air is jetted onto the bulbs to peel off the surface skins.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,998,465 and 5,021,254 to Fischer, et.al. disclose an apparatus for peeling garlic wherein garlic cloves are placed on a shake table and then dropped from the shake table onto a sloped feed tray having a plurality of downwardly extending parallel troughs whereupon the garlic cloves are fed into a product cup and their skins removed by blasts of air.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,996,483 to Yip discloses a garlic peeler with an open top and a cylindrical inner wall surface upon which four ribs having respective surfaces are formed. A central beater surrounded by the cylindrical wall surface is supported for rotation about an axis. Garlic bulbs are caused to rotate and strike the rib surfaces to remove the skins.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,131,508 to Tsai discloses a garlic surface membrane stripper having a first and second body, a press rod and a press structure. The first rod is provided with a plurality of membrane stripping claws to remove the skins.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,244,529 B1 to Tardif, et.al. discloses a manually operated garlic grater having a casing, a grating drum and a removably mounted handle on the casing on top of an open end of a tubular cavity. Pressing a clove of garlic onto the drum causes the skin of a clove of garlic to be torn out by drum teeth.
US 2002/0153440 to Holcomb, et.al. discloses a hand held garlic peeler that utilizes elastomeric rods or arms that engage the garlic cloves and rub the skins off of the garlic cloves.
While the devices disclosed above generally achieve their intended purpose, it is readily appreciated that they are complex apparatus, are not always simple and easy to operate and are generally costly to manufacture.